Recording Medium Containing Moving Picture Data And Additional Information Thereof And Reproducing Method And Apparatus Of The Recording Medium

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates to a recording medium containing moving picture data and additional information thereof and to reproducing method and apparatus of the recording medium. The present recording medium has script files including additional information about moving picture data, e.g., scene descriptive text and introduction of characters, etc. In addition, information linking each script file with a section of moving picture data to be presented with contents of the script file is included in a link data file or is contained in a filename of the script file. In reproduction of the recording medium, a script file linked with presently reproduced moving picture data section is determined and searched for based on the link data file or every filename of the script files, and contents of the found script file are presented together with the presently reproduced moving picture data. Furthermore, previously presented additional information is removed depending on data or filename of the found script file.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.12/318,094, filed Dec. 22, 2008, now pending, which is a continuation ofU.S. application Ser. No. 10/143,498, filed May 10, 2002, now U.S. Pat.No. 7,643,726, which claims the benefit of a foreign priorityapplication filed in Korea as Serial No. 10-2001-26027 on May 12, 2001,all of which are incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a recording medium on which movingpicture data have been recorded together with script files includingadditional information related with the moving picture data.

The present invention further relates to a method of linking scriptfiles with moving picture data and relates to method and apparatus ofreproducing the moving picture data along with script files thereof.

2. Description of the Related Art

An optical disk such as DVD (Digital Versatile Disk) being able to storedigital data is widely used in these days. A DVD can store not onlyaudio data but also moving picture data of long time. A DVD has tworecording partitions, one for storing digital data stream such as movingpicture data, and the other for storing navigation data which are usedto control reproduction of the stored digital data stream.

Thus, when a DVD having digital data stream thereon is placed into aconventional DVD player, the player reads out thereproduction-controlling data written in the navigation data partitionfirst and stores them in a memory equipped therein. Afterwards, the DVDplayer can select or search for an arbitrary section of moving picturedata using the reproduction-controlling data in the memory and playbackit.

A DVD may include additional information about moving picture datarecorded thereon. Namely, a DVD may include scene descriptive texts andintroduction of characters, etc. besides video and audio data. Suchadditional information may be informed to a viewer who wants moreinformation about moving pictures being presented.

However, how to link such additional information with moving picturedata and how to reproduce it along with moving picture data are not yetdecided.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of linkingadditional information with each section of moving picture data and ofstoring the additional information.

It is another object of the present invention to provide method andapparatus of reproducing a recording medium including the additionalinformation as well as moving picture data thereon.

A recording medium in accordance with the present invention ischaracterized in that it has data comprising: moving picture data; andadditional information, written in the form of file, related with saidmoving picture data, wherein filename of each additional informationfile includes an address of a related section of moving picture data.

A method of reproducing a recording medium containing moving picturedata and additional information thereof in accordance with the presentinvention is characterized in that it comprises the steps of:determining whether there is at least one file including additionalinformation for moving picture data on the recording medium; obtainingan address of presently reproduced moving picture data and searching foran additional information file associated with the obtained address,based on the determination result; and outputting contents of the foundadditional information file together with the presently reproducedmoving picture data.

An apparatus of reproducing a recording medium containing moving picturedata and additional information thereof in accordance with the presentinvention is characterized in that it comprises: a data pickup readingdata recorded on the recording medium; a data storage for storing atleast one file, read by said data pickup, including additionalinformation about moving picture data recorded on the recording medium;and a controller searching for an additional information file linkedwith presently reproduced moving picture data based on each filename ofthe additional information files stored in said data storage, and havingcontents of the found additional information file presented.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a furtherunderstandings of the invention, illustrate the preferred embodiments ofthe invention, and together with the description, serve to explain theprinciples of the present invention.

FIG. 1 schematically shows a recording medium such as a DVD includingscript files containing additional information about moving picturedata;

FIGS. 2 and 3 show structures of Video Manager Information (VMGI) andVideo Title Set Information (VTSI), respectively, recorded in anavigation data zone of the recording medium of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 shows hierarchically-structured digital data stream recorded on arecording medium;

FIG. 5 shows a part of program chain information including 4-byte-longPGC Content field a ‘Script Flag’ is allocated in;

FIG. 6 shows the first embodiment of a method linking script files withmoving picture data according to the present invention;

FIG. 7 shows the second embodiment of a method linking script files withmoving picture data according to the present invention;

FIG. 8 shows the third embodiment of a method linking script files withmoving picture data according to the present invention;

FIG. 9 shows an embodiment of a method specifying that a moving picturedata section has no related additional information;

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of an apparatus reproducing a recordingmedium including script files as well as moving picture data inaccordance with the present invention;

FIG. 11 is a flow chart of an embodiment of a method reproducing arecording medium including script files as well as moving picture datain accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 12 shows an example of screen displaying both a scene by movingpicture data and scene descriptive text by a script file; and

FIG. 13 is a flow chart of another embodiment of a method reproducing arecording medium including script files as well as moving picture datain accordance with the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

In order that the invention may be fully understood, a preferredembodiment thereof will now be described with reference to theaccompanying drawings.

Embodiments of a method linking additional information with movingpicture data in accordance with the present invention are describedfirst.

FIG. 1 schematically shows a recording medium such as a DVD includingscript files containing additional information about moving picturedata. The DVD of FIG. 1 is composed of three recording partitions, thefirst ‘Data Zone (DZ)’ for storing digital data stream such as movingpicture data, the second ‘Navigation Data Zone (NDZ)’ for storingnavigation data used to control reproduction of the stored digital datastream in the DZ, and the third ‘Script File Zone (SFZ)’ for storingscript files having additional and/or detailed information about movingpicture data.

In the SFZ, at least one link data file, which links script files withcorresponding sections of moving picture data, may be included.

The additional information in the script file may be written in theconventional HTML (Hyper-Text Markup Language) format, and a singlescript file is linked with at least one a predetermined-sized VOBU(Video OBject Unit) which is defined in the general DVD recordingstandard.

In addition, the link data file may be created for each PGCI (ProGramChain Information) which is also defined in the general DVD recordingstandard, and it is composed of link entries where each entry consistsof a script file identifier and an address of VOBUs associated with ascript file.

FIG. 2 shows the structure of Video Manager Information (VMGI) recordedin the NDZ. The VMGI includes Video Manager Menu VOBU Address Map‘VMGM_VOBU_ADMAP’ in which 4-byte-long start addresses of Video ManagerMenu VOBUs ‘VMGM_VOBU_Ads’ are written.

FIG. 3 shows the structure of Video Title Set Information (VTSI)recorded in the NDZ. The VTSI includes Video Title Set Video Object UnitAddress Map ‘VTS_VOBU_ADMAP’ in which 4-byte-long start addresses ofVideo Title Set VOBUs ‘VTS_VOBU_Ads’ are written.

FIG. 4 shows hierarchically-structured digital data stream recorded on aDVD. According to the hierarchical structure depicted in FIG. 4, singlePGCI which has been written in the PGCI table included in the VMGIand/or VTSI is associated with at least one VOB (Video OBject), calledprogram section or program chain, where a single VOB is composed of manyVOBUs containing actual data.

In the PGCI, 4-byte-long PGC Content field is included as shown in FIG.5. The PGC Content field consists of the following sub-fields:8-bit-long ‘Number of Cells’, 7-bit-long ‘Number of Programs’, 1-bit‘Script Flag’, and 16-bit-long ‘Reserved’.

The 1-bit ‘Script Flag’ indicates whether or not script files are linkedwith an associated program chain. If the ‘Script Flag’ is set it meansthat there are linked script files, and if reset it means that there arenot.

If there are linked script files, information for linking each scriptfile with a corresponding section of moving picture data belonging to aprogram chain is stored in a link data file.

FIG. 6 shows an example of the structure of a link data file. There maybe several link data files, as shown in FIG. 6, to match one file withone program chain when a plurality of program chains exist on a DVD.Therefore, a link data file may have a filename indicative of anassociated PGCI to distinguish what link data file is associated withwhat PGCI. For example, the first link data file associated with thePGCI ‘PGCI #1’ of the first program section is named to ‘PGC_(—)1.lk’,and, in the same manner, the second link data file associated with thePGCI ‘PGCI #2’ of the second program section is named to ‘PGC_(—)2.lk’where the extension ‘lk’ implies link data file.

In the example of a link data file depicted in FIG. 6, each link entrywritten in the link data file consists of an address of a VOBU withwhich contents of a linked script file are to be presented and arecording address of the linked script file. For example, if it issupposed that an address of a VOBU with which contents of a linkedscript file are to be presented is ‘10000’ and a recording address ofthe linked script file is ‘001001h’, a corresponding link entry has dataof ‘10000/001001h’ where the symbol ‘/’ is a delimiter. Other symbolsuch as a space may be used instead of ‘/’.

FIG. 7 shows another example of the structure of a link data file. Inthe example of FIG. 7, each link data file is associated with acorresponding program chain through a unique filename the same as theabove example. Namely, a link data file is named to ‘PGC_(—)1.lk’ forthe first PGCI, and to ‘PGC_(—)2.lk’ for the second PGCI. Each linkentry consists of an address of a VOBU with which contents of a linkedscript file are to be presented and a filename of the linked scriptfile. For example, if it is supposed that an address of a VOBU withwhich contents of a linked script file are to be presented is ‘10000’and a filename of the linked script file is ‘xxxx0.sc’, a correspondinglink entry has data of ‘10000/xxxx0.sc’ where the symbol ‘/’ is adelimiter.

When a DVD including the above-explained script files and at least onelink data file thereon is placed into a DVD player being able to the DVDand a program chain to reproduce is selected at the same time from auser, the DVD player checks the 1-bit ‘Script Flag’ written in the PGCContent field ‘PGC_CNT’ in PGCI of the selected program chain, first. Ifthe ‘Script Flag’ is 1, the DVD player considers that script filesassociated with the selected program chain have been written in the SFZ,reads a data link file associated with the selected program chain fromthe SFZ, and stores the read data link file in a memory. In thesesuccessive operations, all script files in the SFZ may be read out andthen stored in the memory along with the link data file.

Afterwards, the selected program chain is reproduced. If script displaymode is activated, the DVD player examines all link entries in the linkdata file, stored in the memory, associated with the program chain beingpresented in order to search for an address which is equal to a startaddress of a VOBU being reproduced. If the same address is found in thelink entries, the DVD player obtains a recording address or a filenameof a script file combined with the found address through a delimiter‘/’, and decodes data contained in the identified script file by theobtained recording address or filename while reading the script filefrom the memory or the DVD. Through these operations, a viewer is ableto view additional information related with the presented movingpictures at the same time while watching the moving pictures.

In the above embodiment, an additional link data file is necessary tolink script files with moving picture data. However, script files can belinked directly with moving picture data without the above-explainedlink data file.

FIG. 8 is another embodiment of a method linking script files withmoving picture data in accordance with the present invention. In theembodiment of FIG. 8, every script file has filename including anaddress of a VOBU to be presented along with the script file. Forexample, if it is supposed that a script file is to be presented withthe fifth VOBU ‘VOBU #5’ of which start address is ‘10000’, the scriptfile includes a string of ‘10000.sc’ in its filename where the ‘sc’means script file. In other words, a start address of a VOBU to bepresented with additional information included in a script file must beused as a filename (extension excluded) of the script file, as shown inFIG. 8.

Therefore, a DVD player reads all script files written in the SFZ of aDVD and knows each start address of a VOBU to be presented with a scriptfile based on each filename before starting reproduction. Afterwards, ifthere is a filename matched with an address of a VOBU being presentednow, the DVD player reads data in a script file having the matchedfilename and decodes out them. Through these operations, a viewer canview additional information related with the presented moving picturesat the same time while watching the moving pictures.

Entire script files may be retrieved from a DVD and then stored in amemory at an initial disk loading process when a DVD is placed.Otherwise, linked script files are retrieved from a DVD and then decodedsequentially when a viewer activates script display mode. If a memoryhas enough storage capacity, it is preferable to respond to user'sscript display request after storing all script files in the memory.

An arbitrary section of moving picture data, namely several VOBUs mayhave no additional information although moving picture data haveadditional information overall. For such a section, a script file ofwhich filename includes a start address of the section is still created,however, the script file has only null data. FIG. 9 shows this methodschematically.

In the example of FIG. 9 illustrating a case that an arbitrary sectionof moving picture data is not supplied with additional information, asection from the L-th VOBU ‘VOBU #L’ to the (m−1)-th ‘VOBU #m−1’ has noadditional information, so that a script file of which filename is‘30000’, same with the address of the L-th VOBU, has null data of fixedsize.

Therefore, when the L-th VOBU is encountered while reproducing themoving picture data, the DVD player reads contents written in the scriptfile ‘30000.sc’ and it deletes previously-outputted contents of thescript file ‘21000.sc’ in a viewing screen because the contents of thefile ‘30000.sc’ are all null. As a result, while a section of movingpicture data not supplied with additional information is beingreproduced, previous additional information not related with currentsection disappears in a screen.

Instead of writing null data in a script file, a special code, e.g., ‘-’is added to the filename of a script file to indicate that a linkedsection has no additional information. For example, in the example ofFIG. 9, the script file of which filename is same with the address ofthe L-th VOBU ‘VOBU #L’ is named to ‘-30000.sc’. Therefore, if a scriptfile of which filename includes the code ‘-’ is linked with currentVOBU, a previously-presented script file is removed in a screenimmediately without reading data in the script file.

An embodiment of method and apparatus of reproducing a recording mediumincluding script files linked with moving picture data as explainedabove is now described in detail.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of an apparatus reproducing a recordingmedium including script files as well as moving picture data inaccordance with the present invention. The reproducing apparatus of FIG.10 comprises an optical pickup 11 detecting signals recorded on a DVD 10on which script files are also written; a reproduction processing unit12 processing the detected signals by the pickup 11 to restore them tovideo, audio, and/or text data; a spindle motor 17 rotating the DVD 10;a sled motor 16 moving the pickup 11 inward and outward on the DVD 10; aservo unit 15 conducting servo operations for the spindle motor 17, thesled motor 16, and an objective lens of the pickup 11; a controllingunit 13 controlling all elements to reproduce the DVD 10; and a memory14 for temporarily storing data produced while reproducing the DVD 10and script files.

The reproduction processing unit 12 may be composed of a digital signalprocessor (DSP) 12 a restoring the detected RF signals to digital dataafter converting the RF signals to binary signals, a decoder 12 bdecoding compressed digital data restored by the digital signalprocessor 12 a, and the like. The controlling unit 13 may be composed ofa file system 13 a searching for and reading a link data file or ascript file stored in the memory 14 or recorded on the DVD 10, amicroprocessor 13 b controlling reproduction of recorded data and scriptfiles in connection with the file system 13 a, and so on. A reproductionoperation, conducted under the control of the controlling unit 13, ofboth moving picture data and related additional information in scriptfiles is performed as follows.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of an embodiment of a method reproducing arecording medium including script files as well as moving picture datain accordance with the present invention.

The procedures depicted in FIG. 11 are on the assumption that the DVD 10includes a link data file in the SFZ as the embodiments of FIGS. 7 and8. When the DVD 10 is placed exactly (S10), the controlling unit 13reads navigation data for controlling reproduction of the DVD 10 fromthe NDZ and stores them in the memory 14, first (S11). There are theVMGI and the VTSI containing PGCI in the navigation data stored in thememory 14.

Because there may be several program chains on the DVD 10, thecontrolling unit 13 waits until a program chain is chosen to bereproduced by a user. If a program chain is selected, the controllingunit 13 checks 1-bit ‘Script Flag’ allocated in the PGC Content field‘PGC_CNT’ written in PGCI associated with the chosen program chain(S12). If the value of ‘Script Flag’ is 0, the controlling unit 13 knowsthat there is no additional information associated with the chosenprogram chain, and conducts a general DVD reproducing operation (S13).

If the values of ‘Script Flag’ is 1, the controlling unit 13 considersthat there is at least one stored script file, linked with the selectedprogram chain, in the SFZ of the DVD 10, and it searches the SFZ of theDVD 10 for a link data file having filename associated with the PGCI ofthe chosen program chain. If found, the controlling unit 13 determinesthat the chosen program chain has linked script files, otherwise, itdetermines that the chosen program chain does not.

If it is determined that there is additional information related withthe program chain, the controlling unit 13 reads out the found data linkfile from the SFZ (S14) and stores it in the memory 14. Specially, ifstorage of the memory 14 is large enough to store many script files, thecontrolling unit 13 analyzes all link entries of the stored link datafile, reads every script file identified by address or filename writtenin each link entry, and stores the read script files in the memory 14,before starting to reproduce moving picture data belonging to the chosenprogram chain (S15).

Afterwards, the controlling unit 13 conducts reproducing operation ofthe selected program chain (S16). If current reproducing mode is scriptdisplay one or if script display mode is requested from a user duringreproduction of moving picture data (S17), the controlling unit 13receives an address of a VOBU being reproduced now from the reproductionprocessing unit 12 or knows the address from the already-stored VTSI inthe memory 14 (S18), and it searches the link data file stored in thememory 14 for a link entry of which VOBU address member is equal to thereceived or known address (S19). If the link entry is not found, thecontrolling unit 13 searches for a link entry of which VOBU addressmember is closest to and smaller than the received or known address(S19). If a link entry is found from the former or the latter searchoperation, the controlling unit 13 identifies a recording address or afilename of a script file from the other member, delimited by ‘/’, ofthe found link entry, and searches the DVD 10 or the memory 14 for ascript file identified by the address or filename through the filesystem 13 a (S20).

If an associated script file is found, its contents are transmitted tothe reproduction processing unit 12 which decodes the received contentsin accordance with compressing way of the contents, if compressed, andoutputs them along with video and audio data decoded from reproducedmoving picture data (S21). Owing to this dual decoding and outputtingoperation, a scene by moving picture data and scene descriptive text bya script file are displayed together in a single screen as shown in FIG.12.

In the meantime, if the found script file contains null data or has aspecial code such as indicative of no linked additional information inits filename as explained referring to FIG. 9, the controlling unit 13supplies the reproduction processing unit 12 with a signal indicative ofno information to command the reproduction processing unit 12 to blank apresent script window. Consequently, continuous display of previousscript file is prevented.

FIG. 13 is a flow chart of another embodiment of a method reproducing arecording medium including script files as well as moving picture datain accordance with the present invention.

The procedures depicted in FIG. 13 are on the assumption that the DVD 10includes no link data file as the embodiment of FIG. 9.

The procedures of the embodiment of FIG. 13 are totally same with thoseof FIG. 11 except the following distinctive steps. In the embodiment ofFIG. 13, if it is determined that a selected program chain hasadditional information (S32), the address range of the selected programchain composed of at least one VOB is detected first and script filesnamed with address belonging to the detected address range are all readfrom the SFZ of the DVD 10 into the memory 14 (S34).

Afterwards, if in script display mode, the controlling unit 13 receivesan address of a VOBU being currently reproduced from the reproductionprocessing unit 12 or knows the address from the already-stored VTSI inthe memory 14 (538), and it searches the memory 14 for a script filenamed with the received or known address or with an address closest toand smaller than the received or known address (539). If found, thecontrolling unit 13 transmits contents of the found script file to thereproduction processing unit 12 to be presented with reproduced movingpictures in a screen.

If the found script file contains only null data or has a special codeindicative of no linked additional information in its filename, thecontrolling unit 13 supplies the reproduction processing unit 12 with asignal indicative of no information to blank a present script window asthe former embodiment.

As shown in FIG. 12, the moving pictures and its related additionalinformation may be displayed together through a conventional Web browserused for surfing Internet. In case of using Web browser, the scriptwindow for additional information can be scrolled to a previous or anext scene descriptive information by commands or clicks from a viewer.In addition, the descriptive data written in a script file may be madeout in the form of hyper-text in order that a viewer might obtain withease more detailed information related with a part of text, e.g., a wordor a phrase by simply clicking it.

The above-explained method of linking additional information with eachsection of moving picture data and method and apparatus of reproducing arecording medium including the additional information as well as movingpicture data make it possible for a viewer to obtain with easeadditional and/or detailed information related to moving picture datareproduced from a recording medium such as a DVD.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that variousmodifications and variations can be made in the present inventionwithout departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. Thus, it isintended that the present invention cover the modifications andvariations of this invention provided they come within the scope of theappended claims and their equivalents.

1. An apparatus comprising: a user interface; a reproducing unit; and acontrolling unit configured to: retrieve a content data and acorresponding management information including linking information forassociating additional information with the content data and a flagindicating whether or not at least one additional information isassociated with the content data, wherein the flag includes a first flagvalue to indicate that the at least one additional information isassociated with the content data, and a second flag value to indicatethat additional information is not associated with the content data,wherein the controlling unit is further configured to, in response to adetermination that the flag includes the first flag value: identify theassociated additional information using the linking information,identify an operation mode of the apparatus, wherein the operation modeis set according to an input received through the user interface,determine whether the identified operation mode is the first operationmode or the second operation mode, wherein the first operation modeindicates that the identified additional information is displayed withthe content data, and the second operation mode indicates that theidentified additional information is not displayed with the contentdata, and wherein the controlling unit is further configured to, inresponse to a determination that the identified operation mode is thefirst operation mode: retrieve the identified additional informationusing the linking information, and control the reproducing unit tosynchronously reproduce the retrieved content data and the retrievedadditional information, and wherein the controlling unit is furtherconfigured to, in response to a determination that the flag includes thesecond flag value: control the reproducing unit to reproduce theretrieved content data.
 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein a singleadditional information is associated with plural content data.
 3. Theapparatus of claim 1, wherein the additional information comprises atleast one specific additional information associated with at least onespecific section of the content data, and wherein the at least onespecific additional information is reproduced with the at least onespecific section of the content data.
 4. The apparatus of claim 1,wherein the additional information and the content data are recorded onseparate partitions of a recording medium.
 5. The apparatus of claim 1,wherein the linking information includes address information of theadditional information.
 6. A method comprising: retrieving a contentdata and a corresponding management information including linkinginformation for associating additional information with the content dataand a flag indicating whether or not at least one additional informationis associated with the content data; wherein the flag includes a firstflag value to indicate that at least one additional information isassociated with the content data, and a second flag value to indicatethat additional information is not associated with the content data; andin response to a determination that the flag includes the first flagvalue: identifying the associated additional information using thelinking information; identifying an operation mode of the apparatus,wherein the operation mode is set according to an input received througha user interface; determine whether the identified operation mode is afirst operation mode or a second operation mode, wherein the firstoperation mode indicates that the identified additional information isdisplayed with the content data, and the second operation mode indicatesthat the identified additional information is not displayed with thecontent data; and in response to a determination that the operation modeis the first operation mode: retrieving the identified additionalinformation using the linking information; and synchronously reproducingthe retrieved content data and the retrieved additional information; andin response to a determination that the flag includes the second flagvalue: reproducing the retrieved content data.
 7. The method of claim 6,wherein a single additional information is associated with pluralcontent data.
 8. The method of claim 6, wherein the additionalinformation comprises at least one file including information associatedwith at least one section of the content data, and wherein theinformation included in the at least one file is reproduced with the atleast one section of the content data.
 9. The method of claim 6, whereinthe additional information and the content data are recorded in separatepartitions of a recording medium.
 10. The method of claim 6, wherein thelinking information includes address information of the additionalinformation.